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RAIL^A/AY CHIMES, 

AUTUMN TIMES, 
1873. 

Lines suggested on supposing Mr. George W. Cass astride the ^^ Elephant's 
Back " (see Northern Pacific R.R. map) in the National Park^ at the head 
of the Yelloivstone, mminating on The Texas and Pacific ^AiDway^ con- 
sidered as Mr. T. A. Scoifs route towards a coveted nomination for Presi- 
dent of the United States, (a) 

BY THE AUTHOR OF 

" Philadelphia and her Western Eailroad Connections," 1852. 

********* 

" The Depletion of the Sinking Fund of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," 1870. 

" On the Transportation Tactics of the Pennsylvania Kailroad Company," 1870. 

" History of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Lease," January 1, 1873- 

" A Railway Lease a Popular Delusion," June 1873. 



"^o pent-up Utica contracts our pow'rs,'' 
The main divide, the nation's roof " is ours ;" 
Far east, far west, the land is all our own, 
Six hundred leagues in length, in breadth a zone. 

Here one can sit and calmh- look around 
On beaver dams, on Indian hunting ground : 
If long time winter-bound, as grumblers say, 
So, too, are Arctic Sweden and Xorway ! 

The rm'fZway is short cut to sudden pelf ; 
Its plan begins in trick and ends in self ; 
To perquisites from lands, bonds, bonus shares, 
Add profits from contracts and other snares. 

This Congress process for inflating cost. 
This monster evil of the times, has lost 
Poor man his legacy beyond recall — 
The subtlest act of spoil since Adam's fall ! 

And as the nation's plight'd trust estate, 

Has been consign'd to corporation fate, 

Farewell free farms to frontier pioneers. 

High price will rule choice tracts, Uen''(\. for j^ears. 

This ruin of the humble homestead plan, 
Puts freehold out of reach of working man ; 
Ignores the gen'rous practice of the past. 
Charters a few, the mass cheats to the last 1 

For land grant roads are plaster'd o'er with liens, 
To secure bonds which furnish'd all the means ; 
Next, by foreclosure creditors are robb'd — 
At fashion^ s tryst gilt knave before nabob ! 



2 

Friends write me, "private," that modest Scott, 
Who took abroad of bonds a loaded j^acht, 
FaiUng to swap or sell at any price, 
Is back for new " series," with new device ! 

•Alas, " Jay," people will say, Cook'd Scott's goose ! ^\ 

When, in sooth, Texas bonds " lie around loose ;" ' ^c^Co^ 

'Twas ne'er Scott's forte to borrow, but to make ; \ ^ 
His credit not so strono; as o-reed for " stake." 



In market, North Pacific had wind first. 
But Scott, in env}^, for our cust'mers thirst ; 
And so, though at the tune in our Ring, 
Out of dock untimely his hulk did swing. 

He cross'd our bow and hurri'd o'er the sea ; 
Of foreign cash brought back not a baubee ! 
" The flea in his ear," is hint to the wight. 
How, from under thumb, prize slips out of sight ! 

To heal his pride, and have his voyage prais'd, 
Jenkins persists that Scott ten millions rais'd. 
By selling 'sylvania Railroad loan. 
What humbug ! Drexel is the star that shone ! 

Hist ! these are secrets I ought not disclose, 
'Not blurt, e'en in condition comatose, 
Lest Farmers' Granges o'er the west in blast, 
' " ' Should stop the subsidy abuse at last. 

When we collided, I was at the fore ; 
With fancy's ^^^y^f^beheld Pacific's shore ; 
Hark ! a cry ! our paper boiler bursted. 
Raiding clans, contract brigands, look'd worsted ! 

Two solstices ago, I could foresee, 

Success a way to Washington for me ; 

For, why should Scott have aspirations, tending 

To the White House, whither I was wending ? 

True, Scott has Moon and Cuyler (6) for his aids, 

Experts in law and lobby, razor-blades ; 

I fee Bohemian Champollions, 

Also commission Wall Street champions. 

If slow to sell, my Ji^Torth Pacific land, 
Sick is his Texas and Pacific band ; 
^AT^^'^V^^ «--? ^y I'oute is near the British bound'ry line ; 

His. through the ancient Aztec clime, (c) 

From my domain the Savage will away. 
On his parch'd plains the Spaniard could not stay ; (c?) 
Line " forty-nine " has Russian steppes and bears ; 
" Thirty-two " has fever and earthquake scares, (e) 



\1' 



My acres will be peopled, centuries hence. 

His was in Montezuma's time, (/) not since ; 

" Gibraltar" [g) thought Jay Cooke ran this "machine,' 

Our rev'ncl friends know better, now, I ween. 

The millions I "arranged for," as per Mead, [h] 
I did not pay for, in the stringent need ; 
,For my subscription, for myself and friends, 
Was made for profit — not to make amends. 

A pretty pass, indeed, if my collections 
Should now be sunk, to straighten past deflections ! 
In this way, all the raitZ way contract pools. 
Would be bereft of dividends, not fools ! 

But first my land grabs I must cover up ; {i) 
And sip and smell, unseen, of Tom Scott's cup ; 
So I'll seem publican, he Pharisee, 
He'll miss the bauble — chance may give it me ! 

Caucus, to me, was e'er a slip'ry jade ; 
Twice I set out for governor array 'd ; 
Still, hari hari is not my intention ! 
Felo-de-se was not Scott's invention ! 

Philadelphia, 30th October, 1873. 



(a) In 1872, in the Allegheny County Convention at Pittsburgh, when G. W. Cass was 
recommended for Governor of Pennsylvania, quite a number of small politicians voted for a 
resolution recommending Thomas A. Scott for President of the United States. Newspapers 
also contained articles, usually in form of correspondence, in his favor. 

Col. Scott's ambitiousneither walks nor slumbers, but soars and sighs. His ambition to be 
rich ought to be satisfied ; his ambition to be distinguished is allied to trust in the dollar as a 
weapon, an idol, a source and aim of power. 

(6) Mr. S. S. Moon for the last ten years has been the Pa. E. E. Co.'s lobby agent at Harris- 
burg, in which vocation he succeeded Col. Scott, in or about 1862. 

Mr. M. is a "corporator" in an indefinite number of Acts of Incorporation, some of extraor- 
dinary character, enacted for a market and sold for a price ! 

Like Col. Scott, Mr. Moon is a graduate of the old " Main Line of Public Works," built by 
the State of Pennsylvania. Mr. M. was appointed "Additional Inspector of Cargoes" at Phila- 
delphia, by the Canal Commissioners, 2d March, 1850. In 1851, A. Boyd Cummings was appointed 
" Collector of Tolls" at Philadelphia, when he appointed T. A. Scott and S. S. Moon to clerk- 
ships in his office. 

On the 2d November, 1853, J. S. Yost was appointed " Collector of Tolls " at Philadelphia, 
and 19th January, 1854, Mr. Y. resigned. 

If we had space, some particulars of Main Line service, when Mr. M. fledged into a trans- 
portation expert, might be here copied. 

Mr. Theo. Cuyler is solicitor to the Pennsylvania Eailroad Company ; is spokesman for the 
Administration at meetings of stockholders ; is founder of a proverb, etc., etc., etc. ; and if he 
ever turn idolater, it will be from worship of the truth, and after veracity shall have been 
declared a goddess by the Fairmount Park Commission, and her statue erected on the bank 
of the Schuylkill river, with surroundings as tropical as the flower-bed in his own imagination. 

In Theo. Cuyler's eyes, " whatever is," in the Pennsylvania Eailroad Company, " is right." 
He is his client's " humble servant." 

(c) The Spaniards, under Cortes, entered the city of Mexico, 8th November, 1519. In 1539, 
the Spaniards explored the valley of the Gila, and visited settlements of Aztecs. In 1540, the 




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Colorado Riwer was discovered. In 1542, Cabrillo, a Spanish explorer, discovered California. 
In 1502, VisAino, a Spaniard, entered the harbor of San Diego. 

Texas was m-st discovered by La Salle, in 1580. 

Western Texas, Kew Mexico, and Arizona, in 1873, three hundred years after discovery, have 
less than one of population to two square miles of territory ! 

(rf) Extract of Report of Lieut. John G. Parke, U. S. Pacific P.P. Reports, vol. vii, page 30 : 

"The temperature along the lower Gila is intense. * * * Below the Pinas villages, on July 
"2 [1855], the mean temperature was 107°.9, the maximum being 112°. On the day of our 
" arrival at Fort Yuma, the thermometer at the Fort indicated 119° !" 

" The region of country known as Colorado desert, is a long plain or valley, west of the Colo- 
" rado River, near its mouth. * * * Its greatest length, from the base of San Bernardino Pass 
" to the Gulf, is 180 miles. Its greatest breadth is about 75 miles. * * * 

" The winds from the north * * * keep the air filled with clouds of dust, and heap up the 
" sand hills along the terrace."— W. P. Blake, Geologist, Pacific R. R. Reports, vol. v. 

"The Llano Estacado, or staked plain. * * * This famous desert, without wood or water, ex- 
" tends from the vicinity of the thirtieth to about the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, is about 
" one hundred and seventy-five miles across at its point of greatest width, and divides the Rio 
" Grande and its tributaries from the affluents of the Mississippi and the streams of eastern 
"Texas." — Cap. John Pope, Oct. 17, 1854. 

(e) "Southern California is remarkably subject to earthquakes. In the counties of Santa 
" Barbara, Los Angeles, and San, Diego, they are felt several times in the year. Within the 
" last six j'ears the ascertained number felt amounted to fifty-nine, or more than nine shocks a 
"year." — Lieut. John G. Parke, U. S. Top. Engr., vol. vii. Pacific R. R. Reports, p. 19. 

The Yellow Fever at Shreveport, the eastern terminus of the Texas and Pacific Railway, in 
the autumn of 1873, this present year, elicited sympathy and assistance for the sufferers from 
many places throughout the United States. 

(/) Arizona contains numerous remains of Aztec civilization ; also traditions of the great 
Aztec chief, Montezuma, who died in Mexico, SOtla June, 1520. 

{g) Gibraltar, now closed, was an establishment on Lake Erie, Ohio, founded and supported 
by Jay Cooke. It contained rooms for eighteen guests at a time, comprising clergymen of 
different denominations. The sojourn was for two weeks, free of charge or expense ; and as 
rooms were vacated by departures they were filled from fresh arrivals. 

(/t) Under date Kew York, May 15, 1873, in a letter to Jay Cooke & Co., G. W. Cass, President 

N. P. R. R. Co., inclosed a resolution which he said had passed the Board of Directors, " unani- 

^uousiy,' iwodays oelore, which resolution stated that " $21,000,000 of the 7 3-10 [loan] had 

already been sold," and limited the issue to thirty millions, leaving at date, 13th May, 1873, 

feven millions unsold. 

In the Duluth Tribune of Sept. 25, 1873, is an article credited to the St. Paul Dispatch, con- 
taining an interview between a reporter and Gen. Manager Mead of the N. P. R. R. service, 
in which Mr. Mead says : 

" I know when four weeks ago our folks met in Kew York everything was favorable. There 
" have never been but thirty millions of dollars in 7 3-10 bonds authorized, and up to that time 
"twenty-three millions had been sold. The other seven millions General Cass and some of his 
"fnends arranged to take, independent of Jay Cooke, and this is what was relied upon to build the 
"205 miles." 

These " 205 miles " extend westward from the Missouri river. 

(i) The concessions of land by the Congress of the United States to the several Pacific Rail- 
road companies, to the 30th June, 1872, comprised : 

Acres, 159,689,966 

Square miles (surpassing _^i;e Pennsylvanias), 249,515 

Besides these, there were large concessions to other railroad companies, and for divers objects. 

But our purpose is with the several Pacific Railroad companies. 

To comprehend the recklessness of Congress, let us take a belt of States, beginning with 
Massachusetts and ending with Illinois, and compare their joint area with the area of public 
land donated to the several Pacific Railroad companies, to date contained in last Laud Office 
Report issued, to wit, 30th June, 1872 : 

7,800 sq. m. 



Massachusetts, . . . 

New York 47,000 

New Jersey, 8,320 

Maryland, 11,124 



Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, . . . 
Indiana, . . 
Illinois, . . 



46,000 sq. m. 
39,964 " 
33,809 " 
55,410 " 



Grand total square miles, 249,427 



That is : Square miles of land donated to Pacific Railroad companies. 
Square miles contained in the ei^f/t^^Sto^es named, 



249,515. 
249,427. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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Hollinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



